Named after the straits beside Byzantium, the Hellenistic Bosporan kingdom was a large exporter of fish, slaves, and wheat for centuries, however much of the territory remained undeveloped and unexplored. It passed in and out of direct Roman influence and 'client-kingdom' status until 870(117) when its bedridden king Anaxigoras II officially willed his kingdom: "To the king of the Romans Hadrian and his successors". Anaxigoras' son Amnozos ruled Bosporos under the patronage and protection of Hadrian and Antonius until his death in 900(147) when Cæsar Antonius formally annexed the kingdom as part of the Empire. Even at this point, as part of the most powerful empire in the known world, Bosporos would remain underutilised and backward. It would be lost to Ostrogoth invaders in 940(187); partly reclaimed by Diocletian in 1046(293); reformed into a client-kingdom again in 1161(408) and then mostly lost again to the Huns in 1198(445) (Vandal tribes quickly displaced the Huns); retaken by Zeno in 1229(476); and lastly collapsing from the stresses of the Miasmata in 1603(850).

A prince and his small army coming from the Kievan Rus, Sengus, reunited the cities in 1698(945) and brought stability and a temporary revival to the region's very profitable agriculture and fishing exports; managing to maintain a respectable military.